Schumer on Tracking Shoppers

NEW YORK - Sen. Charles Schumer says federal authorities should regulate the practice of retailers using shoppers' smartphones to track their movement through a store.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday that the Federal Trade Commission should require that stores let shoppers opt out of being tracked.

Several major retailers use technology that allows them to track customers' movements through their stores by following Wi-Fi signals from smartphones. Schumer said that shoppers who don't want to be tracked must turn of their phones' Wi-Fi or leave the devices at home.

He called cellphone tracking "intrusive and unsettling. Schumer said at a Manhattan news conference that the FTC should step in and require an "opt-out" provision.

He said the tracking program is a deceptive trade practice because shoppers don't know they are being tracked.